


Exes For Cash

by artificialmac



Category: RuPaul's Drag Race RPF
Genre: Alaska is stubborn, Angst, M/M, Sharon is kind of a jerk, do they still love each other, don't ask me, idk - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-27
Updated: 2016-10-27
Packaged: 2018-09-19 14:38:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,407
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9445829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/artificialmac/pseuds/artificialmac
Summary: Sharon and Alaska have been asked for years now by WOW Presents to play Besties For Cash. What happens when they finally agree? Will they be able to recover the fragile friendship they had built?





	

Alaska took a big breath in and exhaled. She couldn’t believe she was doing this. WOW had been trying to get her and Sharon to do this for years; she didn’t know what it was this time that made her say yes. Alaska felt the strong urge to just run away. She could say she was sick, or she had changed her mind. They would understand right?

“Boo!”

Alaska jumped and grabbed her chest. She turned to see Sharon, red faced, due to the fact that she was laughing so hard. Which was saying something considering the amount of white foundation the older queen had applied.

“Jesus Sharon! You scared the shit out of me.”

“That was kind of the idea.” Sharon gave her a full smile, teeth included, and it took every ounce of willpower that Alaska had to not smile back. “How are you Lasky? I assume you’re a bit weirded out judging by your whispering to the WOW Presents studio door.”

Alaska started at the nickname, but shook the feeling off quickly. “I’m fine I guess. If I’m honest this is kind of awkward.”

“Oh yeah. It’s gonna be hella awkward, but it’s what the people want.” Sharon shrugged and gave another dazzling smile.

“Yeah I guess.” Alaska’s eyes fell to the pavement under her. She never had been good at keeping eye contact with Sharon, even when they were together, but now it was just so…intimate. It made her stomach turn with a mixture of guilt and sadness and something else that she didn’t want to think about.

“Hey.” Sharon tilted her head to catch Alaska’s eye, and the younger girl looked up to make full eye contact. “If you don’t want to do this, I can throw a fit or something, and get us out of it.”

Alaska actually pondered this idea for a few seconds before shaking her head. “No it’s not a big deal. I mean, its just some questions.”

Sharon gave her a wary look but nodded and brushed past her to open the door.

One of the producers greeted Sharon and Alaska as they came in. “Hey you guys, so we are going to interview you separately first and then we can get started with the game.” They both nodded. “Great. Sharon you are up first.“

“Party.” Sharon jokes.

They lead her over to a stool and give her a countdown before the red light signals they are recording. The questions start off simple enough.

Who are you? What is your relationship to Alaska? Sharon answered the first two easily.

“I’m Sharon Needles, winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race season 4. Alaska and I used to date, but now we are friends.”

The next two got a little deeper.

When did you meet/how did you meet?

“We officially met when Alaska came to visit her family in Pennsylvania. We talked over MySpace for a while after that too. I had seen her before then though. I was super jealous because she was more famous than I was at the time. And look at us now, we’ve come full circle.” Alaska winced at that, but shrugged it off.

The last few questions though, Alaska couldn’t even look at Sharon.

What was your relationship like? Why did you breakup?

Sharon sighed, and looked around the set, as if it would supply an answer. “It was good in the beginning. At least it felt that way.” Sharon coughed, trying to mask the tone that her voice had taken. “Over time it got harder. Umm. Yeah. We broke up because the relationship had become toxic and bad for the both of us.” Sharon wasn’t looking into the camera anymore.

“All right thanks. Alaska your turn.” The productions people seemed completely blind to the atmosphere in the room.

They asked her the same questions, and she gave more or less the same answers. Her heart was beating faster and faster with each passing second, knowing that the worst was yet to come. Alaska tried to keep the mood fun and upbeat. Sharon watched Alaska like a hawk as she gave her answers, and the younger queen fidgeted minutely under the searing gaze. 

Then they were taken to separate rooms and given more questions. They had to give the answer that they thought the other person would give. These questions got very personal very quickly. Some of them Alaska didn’t want to know the answers to, and she wasn’t even sure she knew her own answers.

They were then taken back in front of the camera. Sharon gave Alaska a reassuring smile and squeezed her hand. The blonde queen didn’t have time to respond before the camera was turned on. She straightened her back and turned on Alaska’s quirky personality.

What were your first impressions of each other?

Alaska turned to face Sharon, “Well I was just impressed at the confidence you had. I really had never seen someone not give a fuck as much as you did, and I was very…interested in that.” Alaska was choosing her words carefully, knowing that everything she said would be over analyzed on Reddit. She didn’t want to give anything away. Not that there was anything to give away. Alaska just didn’t want people to get the wrong idea.

“Wow, that’s really nice.” Sharon held up her paper, “I just said annoyed.”

“What? Really?” Alaska laughed.

“Yeah, I thought you hated me for a good two weeks until…you know.” Sharon made a vulgar hand gesture and Alaska gave one of her squealing laughs and covered her face.

“What about you Sharon? What did you think about Alaska?” One of the producers prompted.

“Well I was jealous at first, because she had so much more fame than I did. She was doing these crazy performances where she was pissed on and naked and it was so punk rock and I was super envious.”

Alaska held up her sign triumphantly. “Yeah you told me about that so I said jealous of my beauty.”

“Well yeah that goes without saying.” Sharon teased her.

Weirdest food combination the other person likes?

“Oh no. Don’t get us started on food.”

“No. Do.” Alaska’s eyes were wide and intense. “She has the worst taste in food!”

“No that is you darling.”

“She eats peanut butter and mayonnaise sandwiches!”

Sharon held up her paper that read: peanut butter and mayonnaise sandwich.

“Its really good. You should give it a chance.” Alaska made a gagging face and Sharon rolled her eyes. “You are one to talk.”

“What did you say for me then?”

“You eat Cheetos and milk. That is disgusting!”

Alaska held up her sign triumphantly but gave a serious look to Sharon. “It’s not that bad.”

Best date you went on together?

“You aren’t going to get this.” Sharon pointed at Alaska. “Because I don’t think you thought it was a date, but I do. It was when we decorated the house for Halloween.”

“That wasn’t a date though! You can’t count that as a date.” Alaska complained.

“We were doing something together and having a wonderful time. Why wouldn’t you call it a date?”

Sharon had her there. And when Alaska thought about it, that had been a wonderful evening. Sharon had insisted on going all out, like she did every Halloween. This year was special though, because this year they had a fog machine. Sharon had been itching to use it since it had arrived in the mail.

Being the people that they are, neither Alaska nor Sharon had read the instructions. They flipped the switch and within seconds the living room was filled with smoke. It was fun at first, but after a moment or so the smoke was so thick they couldn’t see through it. They had stumbled around the apartment for who knows how long, trying to find each other. When they finally did, they laughed for a good ten minutes. It took a full day of all the windows being propped open for them to get all the smoke out of the apartment.

Alaska smiled at the memory. “Well I just said our three year anniversary”

“That was the worst date what are you talking about?” Sharon looked back at the camera and explained. “We went to some Italian place because we wanted to be fancy, but it was terrible and we both got food poisoning. I couldn’t perform for a week it was so bad.”

The memory played out in their minds and they both winced at it.

“That was one of the best dates in my opinion.”

“What? We were miserable for a week! What about that was good?”

“You were home.” Alaska said this quietly. “You were home for a whole entire week. It was just you and me. That hadn’t happened in God knows how long.” Alaska met Sharon’s eyes tentatively “I would’ve rather been with you, food poisoning and all, because it meant I was with you.”

The mood of the room immediately changed. Sharon’s smile faltered a bit, and Alaska tried to ignore the churning in her gut. 

What is one thing that the other person did that you miss?

Alaska tried to bring the morale up then, drawling out her answer for comedic effect. “I think that you miss all my beautiful clothes that you constantly borrowed.”

Sharon gave her a weak smile, “I should have said that, but I just wrote everything”

“Oh.” Alaska didn’t know what to say.

Sharon just ignored her and kept going right along. “I’m going to say that you said you missed my incredible cooking skills.”

This comment served to break the tension a bit. “You aren’t serious are you? You couldn’t cook if your life depended on it.” Sharon went to argue and Alaska cut her off, “Ramen noodles don’t count.”

Sharon grumbled something under her breath that sounded like, “They should.”

“No I just wrote that I missed when you and I and Cerrone would all curl up on our broken sofa and watch Nancy Grace.”

“Those children were mutilated!” Sharon exclaims in her impeccable Nancy Grace voice.

“God we have only made ten dollars!” Alaska lamented.

“I guess we don’t know each other that well.”

Alaska’s jaw hangs open. “Speak for yourself. I know you very well.”

What is the other person’s biggest weakness?

“David Bowie.” Alaska hadn’t even needed to think about it.

It was Sharon’s turn to be surprised. She held up her sign but began to complain, “That was an easy one though.”

“What’s my biggest weakness?” Alaska prompts.

“I wrote something down at first, and then I realized that my niece is probably watching this so I changed my answer to animal masks.”

“You are right, but what was the other one?” Sharon motions for Alaska to come closer and she whispers it in her ear. Alaska’s eyes shoot open and she tries to keep from blushing. “Well yeah that too.”

How long did it take you to get over the other person?

The tension came back full force now. Alaska felt it seeping into her lungs and wrapping around her heart.

“I think it took you about six months to get over us.” Sharon’s voice was no longer light and joking, it was weighted down and she spoke softer than before.

Alaska just held up her sign without any explanation 3 years

“Really?” Sharon inquired, genuinely shocked for the first time.

Alaska just nodded. She was trying her best not to let it show how much the question had affected her. She tried to shake it off as she guessed. “I’m going to say it took you a year to get over me.”

Sharon gave her a weak smile and held up her sign that read I didn’t

Oh

“Oh.”

“Well I mean how can anyone expect me to get over all of this.” Sharon joked as she motioned to Alaska, trying to lighten the mood, but Alaska’s face said it all. There was a long silence in the studio. Not one person exhaled.

“Ok well thanks you guys. You won twenty dollars.” A producer handed Alaska the money, but she couldn’t really process what was happening. She just kind of stared at it blankly. Sharon grabbed a 10 “I need this more than you.” She joked.

The camera turned off, and the tension only thickened with each passing second. Alaska made a beeline for the door, hoping to escape without having to talk about any of the events that had just taken place. It was clearly not her day, because Sharon realized what she was doing and blocked the exit. “Wait Lasky.”

Alaska put her hand up to quiet Sharon. “No. Just. No. We don’t have to talk about this. Ever.”

“What if I want to talk about it?”

Alaska felt her resolve slipping. “I-I-I can’t do this right now.” Alaska tried to push past Sharon, who stopped her once more.

“Then when, Justin?”

“Don’t do that.”

“Do what?”

“Don’t use my name like that.”

“Like what?”

“Like you know me.” This statement caused Sharon to step back and drop her arm.

“But I do.”

“I think we just clearly established that neither of us know the other anymore.” The tone Alaska had was harsh. Her words were coming out sharp and Sharon had to keep from wincing as they flew at her.

They stood silently for a few seconds, the effect of Alaska’s statement washing over them. They really didn’t know each other anymore. The person they each saw before them had been so different. So young. So naïve. So in love. Now they were here. They really had come full circle. They had begun as strangers and now they would end as such.

Sharon’s phone ringing broke the silence. They both snapped out of whatever memories or imaginary lives they had been living in. Alaska caught a glimpse of the caller ID and decided it was time for her to leave.

The last thing she heard was Sharon’s greeting of “Hey babe,” before the door shut behind her, firmly and with finality.

The sun felt like a blessing on her skin. Alaska shook her head to clear it of thoughts she hadn’t indulged in for years. She nodded at no one in particular and began to walk away from the studio; doing her best to ignore the pangs in her chest each time her foot made contact with the pavement.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [To the spoiled brat, with love](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10019354) by [spoky](https://archiveofourown.org/users/spoky/pseuds/spoky)




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